Huge increase in China's Black Friday shoppers

Chinese shoppers check their e-mail while taking a break at the Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets on Black Friday. Hezi Jiang / China Daily

Seven times more people than last year shopped overseas via e-commerce platforms during Black Friday in China, and 70 percent were women, according to a report released by electronic payment platform Alipay.

Shanghai shoppers took the lion's share of online transactions, accounting for 21.9 percent of spending via Alipay, while Beijing customers ranked second with 16.5 percent.

In terms of per capita spending, Tibet autonomous region overtook both.

Per capita expenditure in Tibet was 1,284 yuan ($200). Beijing was second at 978 yuan and Shanghai third with 954 yuan, Alipay reported. They were followed by Tianjin and Chongqing.

The Alipay report said shoppers spent 699 yuan on average, a slight drop from last year.

With mature cross-border payment and logistics systems and discounts rolled out by multiple e-commerce platforms, the general public in China has come to embrace overseas online purchases which were 20 percent cheaper this year compared to previous years, according to rough estimates.

Overseas shopping used to focus on maternal and child health care products but this year the focus shifted toward bags and clothes, according to ymatou.com, an e-commerce platform in China.

Black Friday, regarded as the first day of the traditional Christmas shopping season, began in the United States and has spread around the world. It is traditionally known as a day on which retailers offer special sales on popular consumer goods and finally make a profit for the year, thus going "into the black".